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His head reared back, his eyebrows raising. I motioned toward his clothes. He took his collar away and brought it up to his nose before sniffing. His nose crinkled, and he dropped the shirt. “Babe,” he said to the girl who’d plopped down next to him. “Get me a shirt.”

She got up, doing as he asked. She walked out of the room and I sneered at him. “Do you even know her name?”

“Why do you care?”

“Because you’re just using them,” I seethed. I hated that she’d just stood and went to go get him a shirt just like that, just because he told her to. He didn’t even ask for crying out loud.

He opened his hands out wide. “What do you think they’re doing to me?” I pressed my lips together. He nodded and smiled as if he’d won. “We’re both doing the same thing to one another.”

“The book,” Randy snapped. “What did you find out?”

The girl walked back into the room and handed the shirt off to Ren. Ren whipped his previous shirt off right there in front of us and I looked away. He was nothing to Randy, or even Liam and Gabe. A new shirt also wasn’t going to help the odor in this place. He needed a shower, and the whole house needed a top to bottom cleaning.

“Do you have it?” Randy asked, not even waiting for him to do any basic grooming. His patience was wearing as thin as mine.

“I don’t have it.”

Randy and I both took a step forward, and Randy nearly growled.

Ren held his hands up. “But I know who does. Jesus, you two are slightly more on edge than you were the other day.”

“You have no fucking idea,” I said, shaking my head.

“Alright, alright,” Ren said, his hands still in the air. “I won’t mess around with you. The Reid’s have it.”

“The Reid’s?” Randy asked, recognition coating his words.

“Yeah, you know. That posh witch family from Boston that’s about as crooked as the mob. But they’re old blood, you see, so nobody gives them hell for it. Word is, Mr. Reid has a bit of a titillation for the black magic, acquires things like the book I was told about. I asked around and was told he purchased it off a rogue witch for his personal use.”

“And you can’t get it for us?”

“You see who I am?” Ren asked, looking around his dump of a place. “I’m a peon. Reid isn’t even going to see me. I won’t even get past his front gates. Believe me, I’ve tried. But someone like you, he might see. It might cost you though.”

“We need that book,” Randy said, his forearms bulging as his hands turned to fists.

His eyes started getting that look in them again, and Ren dropped his nonchalant attitude. “Listen, that’s all I know. Reid has it. I don’t know if you can get it, but that’s who has it. You certainly aren’t going to get it here, or by doing anything to me or to my business.”

“You’re sure this guy has it?” I asked, praying he wasn’t leading us astray. He’d be stupid if he did because we knew where to find him, and he seemed genuinely afraid of what Randy might do to him.

“One-hundred percent. I know one of his guards.”

“Guards?”

Ren shrugged. “I don’t know what he’s got in there, but he’s got the place locked down tight. He is a rich son of a bitch so that might be all it is. Listen, that’s all I know.”

Randy took my hand. “Fine. If you hear anything—”

“Yeah,” Ren said, finishing for him. “If I hear anything, I’ll let you know.”

Randy pulled on my hand and we walked from the house.

“Damnit,” I growled when we got back to his bike. I kicked the dirt at my feet. “I’d thought we were going to be leaving with the answer to fix Liam tonight and we still have nothing.”

“Not only that,” Randy said, his voice tight. “This Reid family isn’t anything to mess with. We can try. But I can’t promise we’re going to be able to do anything about the damn book now.”

My heart dropped into my stomach.

No book, no lead on the evil things going on around Salem. Yep. Perfect.